aces high

Director: jack gold

Actor: malcolm mcdowell,christopher plummer,simon ward,peter firth

Data Published: Tue May 18 1976

Genres: Action,Drama,War

Key Words: year 1917,british soldier,western front,dying young,airplane collision

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075627/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aces_High_(film)

Description: Aces High is a movie starring Malcolm McDowell, Christopher Plummer, and Simon Ward. In World War I, the high casualty rate amongst the rookie pilots of the Royal Flying Corps puts an enormous strain on the survivors.

Plot: In a one-week timeframe, life at the front in a RFC squadron is documented. The background story begins a year before, in October 1916, with fighter ace Major John Gresham (Malcolm McDowell) speaking to a class of pupils at Eton College. One year later, a new recruit, 2nd Lt. Croft (Peter Firth), arrives at Gresham's temporary base in northern France. Gresham had been his house captain at Eton and is also the boyfriend of his older sister. Gresham relies on alcohol to cope with the ongoing combat stress and to continue flying. The strain of being responsible for this young recruit (and potential impact on his sister) is an additional burden, causing him to drink even more. Croft has to learn how to survive, not only in the air, but on the ground as well as he makes some minor mistakes in squadron etiquette. Croft's week-long rite of passage, from naive schoolboy to adult fighting soldier, is shown. His initial hero worship of Gresham crumbles, as he learns the realities of service at the front, but he gains a respect for Gresham and the stresses with which he has to cope. Shortly after Croft scores his first air victory and seems to have made the leap in skills necessary to survive, he is unexpectedly killed in an air-to-air collision with a German aircraft. While looking out of his office window, Gresham sees an apparition of Croft returning from the battle field uninjured, which fades away. Gresham then orders for the new recruits to be sent in for his inspection.